While David Petraeus was enduring a dramatic fall from grace last Friday, the
woman who brought about his downfall carried on seemingly regardless.

Paula Broadwell, a mother-of-two young children, was preparing to celebrate her 40th birthday with her husband and friends at a venue just miles from the CIA chief's headquarters.

The small group were reported to have dined at The Inn at Little Washington, an exclusive restaurant in rural Virginia not far from Washington DC, on Friday evening despite the headlines rolling across US television screens.

How quickly they became aware of Gen Petraeus' resignation and reports of Mrs Broadwell's involvement in the scandal is unclear. But a bigger party the next day which had journalists and military figures on the guestlist was cancelled by email.

On Sunday, no one was home at the family address in the upmarket area of Dilworth, Charlotte, North Carolina. The only message readily available had been etched with chalk in the driveway 'Dad hearts' Mom'.

Neighbours of the leafy suburb remained tight-lipped about news of the affair as photographers and journalists roamed the streets. The tightknit community is used to intrusion as the setting for the US CIA-based drama Homeland.

"It's not something I'd wish to talk about," said one resident near the Broadwell's spacious, £570,000 property.

"They're keen joggers and attended local parties but that's all I could say." Mrs Broadwell, a slim, striking fitness fanatic who has competed in Ironman triathlons, first met Gen Petraeus in 2006 as a graduate student at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

The commander was visiting the Ivy League university to discuss his experiences as commander of the 101st Airborne Division during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Following his talk, Mrs Broadwell, who like Gen Petraeus is a graduate of West Point, the US military academy, was invited to dinner with the general along with a number of other students.

"I introduced myself to then-Lt. Gen. Petraeus and told him about my research interests," she later wrote in her biography, "All In: The Education of Gen. David Petraeus."

In return, the general handed her his business card and offered to put her in touch with other researchers with similar interests.

By 2009, just as Gen Petraeus had taken up his new role as US Central Command chief in 2009, it was clear that he and Mrs Broadwell, the 1991 prom queen at Century High School in North Dakota, had developed a close relationship.

Over the next two years the pair spent hours together as Mrs Broadwell, assuming the role of his untested biographer, conducted numerous interviews both at Gen Petraeus's headquarters in Tampa, Florida, and in Afghanistan where he was sent as commander of US troops. The duo often went running together.

"I found her relationship with him to be disconcerting," a former aide to Gen Petraeus told the Washington Post.

"Those who worked for him never tried to leverage our relationship with him. It seemed to a lot of us that she didn't have that filter."

Indeed, Mrs Broadwell's trips to the front line were not without controversy and at times raised serious concerns among staff.

It became clear to some that while she was obviously competing for the general's loyalty, she may also have been seeking his affection.

Officers, aware of her background in the military and knowing she was married to her husband Scott, a radiologist, thought she came across as inappropriate.

Former aides have also pointed to Mrs Broadwell's attire during her Afghanistan excursions.

Some believed Mrs Broadwell, currently a research associate at Harvard's Centre for Public Leadership while also working on a doctorate in the war studies department at King's College London, failed to dress appropriately.

On occasion, her tight shirts and trousers reportedly drew complaints and Gen Petraeus himself is understood to have once told her through a member of his staff to "dress down," a former aide recalled.

Peter Mansoor, a former colonel on Gen Petraeus's staff, said he believed the general's trust in Mrs Broadwell, who has no formal training as a journalist, was "strange."

Speaking in an interview after news of Mrs Broadwell's links to the general broke, he said: "My gosh, if you are going to have someone interview everyone who has ever touched you in your life, choose someone who has written a biography or at least a history book."